Untitled

64 THE EXPLORATION OF THE CAUCASUS
killed. The pliant Ossetes have recognised, that the Russian service
offers a means by which they may rise to fortune. The Turkish
and Mohammedan mountaineers alone are still uneasy, and might
easily be driven by a clumsy administrator to try
their fortiuies
beyond the frontier. At the present time such a calamity
does not appear imminent, and we miist trust that it will not
be brought about by the blunders of any minor official who has
failed to grasp the policy of his chiefs and the true position of
his country in the Caucasus. In repressing disorder, improving
communications, and welding different races into a political unit,
Russia is at once carrying on the work of civiUsation and
strengthening her own position in Western Asia. The depopulation
of the Black Sea coast marks an exception to the comparative
success which her rulers have achieved in other parts of the
isthmus. In my opinion, the great hope for the future of the
country lies in the fact that the Caucasians themselves are acquiring
a keen desire for progress. Energy, uprightness, and intelligence
in the government will meet with ready appreciation and support
from many of the native nobles, from the mercantile classes of the
towns, and even from the more intelligent among the mountain
people, in whom schools and the vicinity of railways are rapidly
developing a new sense of the opportunities
of life. The main
occupation of the Caucasian Government is no longer the subjugation
of lawless tribes. The political pi'oblem now before it is the
development of the natural resources of the country and of the
capabilities of its population. The chief native races, the Armenians
and Georgians, are intelligent and progressive ; they
are ^^'ell fitted
to play an important part in the future of the Russian Empire ;
but they are also the inheritors of national languages and traditions
with regard to which they ai-e justly sensitive. Whether these
peoj)les are to prove the Scotch or the Irish of Russia will depend
mainly on the wisdom of the Imperial Government during the next
half century. Questions of present politics are, however, outside
my immediate purpose, and I shall not attempt in these pages to
forecast the doubtful future of the Caucasian Provinces.
I nnist now endeavour to indicate the general character of travel